Critic's Choice: New CD's

By KELEFA SANNEH

Published: April 24, 2006

Rihanna
''A Girl Like Me'' (Island Def Jam)

Last year this Barbados-born singer scored a smash with the lithe pop-dancehall track ''Pon de Replay.'' Then came the first single from this album, ''SOS,'' which brazenly -- and astutely -- recycled the beat from Soft Cell's version of ''Tainted Love.'' The follow-up is ''Unfaithful,'' a profoundly ludicrous -- but not disagreeable -- pop lament: ''I don't wanna hurt him any more/ I don't wanna take away his life/ I don't wanna be a murderer.'' (If there's a singer who could make these lines sound sinister or desolate, it sure isn't this one.) Elsewhere, this scattershot album is full of duds (the title track is a tuneless ballad) but it does include a triumphant return to her old formula: a pop-dancehall song called ''Break It Off,'' where she shares the microphone with Sean Paul atop an electro-reggae beat. KELEFA SANNEH